ORANGE — A longtime political, education reform, and civil rights activist has died. Rebecca Kingslow died last month after suffering a brief illness, family members confirmed. She was 92.

According to family members and fellow activists, Kingslow will be remembered for her work in the 1960s and 70s fighting for the true integration of the Orange school system, and the advancement of opportunities for black students and workers in the community.

Born on April 21, 1922, in Chicago to labor movement activists Milton and Elizabeth Webster, Kingslow was introduced to civic activism at an early age. She spent her young life in the Midwest, graduating with a degree in political science from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1943 and working as a teacher in the Chicago public school system. She married Dr. Harry Kingslow in 1946. The two were married until his death in 1991.

Over the next 10 years, Kingslow’s husband finished medical school in Nashville and the couple moved to Germany where he served as a captain, flight surgeon, and hospital commander with the Air Force during the Korean War. After the war, they settled in Orange, N.J.

According to their son Leslie, the two quickly joined the Citizens for Representative Government, which he described as," a biracial coalition that for nearly three decades agitated and affected positive change, influencing the political and educational systems in the city.”

In his book, ‘Homeboy Came to Orange: A Story of People’s Power,’ the late civil rights activist and group founder Ernie Thompson recognizes 12 township residents as the leaders of the fight to integrate the school system and gain equal rights and employment opportunities for black residents in Orange. Kingslow was one of the 12.

“Becky Kingslow was such a central person to the whole movement,” Mindy Fullilove, Thompson’s daughter, who co-authored the book and said she spent many nights as a child attending Citizens meetings, said.

“She was incredibly smart and dedicated. She brought a lot of skill and insight to this. They met all the time to discuss strategies and issues. It really was a new generation and a new era in the city.”

According to past members, the group formed with broad goals of equality, but eventually zeroed in on education, fights over integrating all of the schools in Orange, and building a high school in the early 1970s that could accommodate all of the students living in the city.

“She was a leader,” Tom Kelly, a member of the group who served on the Orange Board of Education at the time, said.

“I know her father, Milton Webster, was a civil rights activist in Chicago back in the 40s. I think she had a lot of her father’s fight in her. It was a tough time, there was a lot of racism. But I think we did something there.”

In addition to her dedication with the Citizens group, Kingslow later got involved with the school district, serving as the Director of Title I Program for the Board of Education of Orange from 1968 to 1974, where she directed system-wide educational programming for at-risk students. She also served as the president of the Orange Board of Education.

Kingslow was on the executive board of Orange’s chapter of the League of Women Voters, and was an executive board member of the NJ Congress of Parents and Teachers and the NJ Commission of Education Advisory Council for the Handicap.

“Our house was always an active den of organizing and of progressive action,” Kingslow’s son, Leslie, said.

“Both my parents led very active civic and political lives and dedicated [themselves] to the improvement of the lives of the people they engaged [with] and the communities that they lived and worked in. Their had an unwavering commitment to underserved communities.”

Professionally, Kingslow earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Seton Hall University and was an assistant professor of education and director of the teachers corps at the now-defunct Upsala College in East Orange. She also worked as a coordinator of federally funded programs for minority students in the Englewood public school system and School Program Coordinator for the Bergen County Superintendents Office.

Family members say she was also an active member of the National School Board Association, American Association of University Professors, National Education Association, Essex County Principals Association, Urban League of Essex County, The Links, Inc., the NAACP, and served as a national vice president of Girl Friends, Inc., a social and civic activism club for black women.

“She was one of the few left from that age,” Kelly said of Kingslow.

“She was one of the last survivors of what really was an exciting time for us.”

Kingslow is survived by her three children, Marcia, Harry and his wife Nyasa, and Leslie and his wife Andrea, her sister Jean Webster, four grandsons, Ajani, Harry, Sekou, and Khari, and many nieces, nephews, friends and former colleagues.

The Kingslow family is planning a “celebration of Becky’s life” this Saturday, Sep. 6, at noon at the Montclair Art Museum, 3 South Mountain Ave. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions in Becky’s name be made to: The Innocence Project (40 Worth St, Suite 701, NY, NY 10013); or the Urban League of Essex County (508 Central Avenue, Newark, NJ 07107).